Randall Roberts Music Awards 2014: 100 trophy moments

Apple CEO Tim Cook, left, greets the crowd with U2 singer Bono, second from right, as The Edge, second from left, and Larry Mullen Jr. look on during an Apple special event in Cupertino, Calif.

Apple CEO Tim Cook, left, greets the crowd with U2 singer Bono, second from right, as The Edge, second from left, and Larry Mullen Jr. look on during an Apple special event in Cupertino, Calif. (Justin Sullivan / Getty Images)

The Times pop music critic selects 100 moments, releases and artists who deserve honors in 2014

Each year critics scour the volumes of music to try and whittle all those sounds down to just ten albums that they consider to be the best of the year. We all know that's ridiculous. No one can hear everything, and any serious music fan will tell you that their favorite music changes from day to day, mood to mood, setting to setting.

This is especially true considering music is more untethered than ever. Sounds come not just when we're sitting in front of the computer with headphones on, or working out, or putting on a record and sitting down to listen to it. It nails us when we're flipping channels, when we're reading, when we're running errands and scanning the dial.

Here are 100 great moments, records, performances, artists, events, ephemera and whatnot from 2014, as chosen by one opinionated human filter.

There's a line in New York rapper ASAP Ferg's syrupy new track "Talk It," a musical response to the death of Michael Brown and the subsequent riots in Ferguson, Mo., that underscored the calcified nature of relations between black communities and the police across America in 2014.

The verse, dotted...

(Randall Roberts)

Best televised live performance (pop): FKA Twigs, "Two Weeks" on “The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon”